The U.S. and Israel have opened the door to a potential deal with Iran to end the bloody conflict that has upended Middle East politics, wreaked havoc on the global economy and fueled fears about whether America is being sucked into a new forever war. But with thousands more U.S. Marines on their way to the Persian Gulf, both sides continued firing barrages on Tuesday, and Iran denied any negotiations are taking place. 

The war’s tempo remains high following Mr. Trump’s delay of his self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran’s chokehold on that crucial waterway has snarled international shipping, sending fuel prices skyrocketing globally. Pakistan has offered to host diplomatic talks. But Iran remained defiant, vowing to fight “until complete victory.”

Concerns over a spiral migrant crisis — something akin to what unfolded and ultimately shook Europe during the height of Syria’s civil war nearly a decade ago — are now rising. The International Organization for Migration reports that more than 130,000 people have crossed into Syria from Lebanon, where more than a million people have been displaced internally, as the war “drives growing cross-border movements and displacement across the region.”

Great power competition for control over critical mineral supplies around the world is likely to be impacted by a landmark free trade deal between the European Union and four South American countries that’s slated to go into effect on May 1 after more than a quarter-century of negotiations.

Control over global agriculture flows is also at the heart of the “EU-Mercosur” deal, which is a key part of the 27-nation EU’s strategy to slash economic dependencies on China and the United States. Parliaments in Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina have ratified the deal that links more than 700 million people and accounts for 25% of global gross domestic product.

Fierce opposition by farmers and environmentalists delayed the deal in December. France and Poland had led a campaign to halt or temper the deal with clauses protecting consumers and agricultural producers.

The new policy comes just days after a federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s limits on press access to the Pentagon. Those limits established a system where reporters could receive press credentials — known as a “hard pass” that granted regular, unescorted access to the sprawling Pentagon grounds — only if they pledged not to solicit and publish information not approved for release by the government.

Nearly all news outlets, including The Washington Times, refused to sign the new policy and lost their credentials. With that policy now invalidated by a federal court, credentialed reporters were expected to regain access to the Pentagon. But the administration said it will instead close the dedicated press workspace in the Pentagon for security reasons and move reporters elsewhere.

“Effective immediately, the Correspondents’ Corridor is closed,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. “A new and improved press workspace will be established in an annex facility outside the Pentagon, but still on Pentagon grounds, and will be available when ready.” It’s unclear when the new press facility will open. The Pentagon is appealing the federal court ruling.

As Washington “debates how to deal with Iran, one option is often dismissed as unrealistic: regime change,” writes Yuri Yarim-Agaev, president of the Center for the Study of Totalitarian Ideology and a former Soviet dissident. “Yet history suggests it works,” Mr. Yarim-Agaev writes in an op-ed for The Times.

“Iran is a totalitarian state, and regime change is the only strategy that has consistently worked against totalitarian regimes,” he writes. “It helped us achieve America’s greatest foreign policy successes: the defeat and transformation of Nazi Germany and imperial Japan after World War II and the collapse of Soviet communism at the end of the 20th century.

“Critics of regime change often cite Iraq and Libya as failures, but those were authoritarian, not totalitarian, regimes. The strategic logic is different,” argues Mr. Yarim-Agaev. “Applying regime change there through direct military intervention was a strategic mistake. That doesn’t invalidate the policy where it’s appropriate.”

Taiwan has held seven presidential elections since 1996 and witnessed three peaceful transfers of power between parties — a “hallmark of constitutional stability,” writes Piero A. Tozzi, senior director of China policy at the America First Policy Institute.

“March 23 is the 30th anniversary of a historical first: Lee Teng-hui’s ballot box selection as president of Taiwan, more formally known as the Republic of China. It marked the first direct popular election of a Chinese head of state,” Mr. Tozzi writes in an op-ed for The Times.

“Beyond a victory for the people of Taiwan, these elections also demonstrate that Chinese democracy is more than the name of an album by Guns N’ Roses and that there is an alternative model to the Communist system that governs the People’s Republic of China,” Mr. Tozzi writes.

“Western media does a disservice … [by] calling Communist Party General Secretary Xi [Jinping] ‘president,’ writes Mr. Tozzi, who asserts that doing so “normalizes a regime that threatens not only Taiwan’s plucky democracy, but also America’s global leadership.”

• March 24 — Multilateral Arms Control after New START: Involving China and Other Nuclear-Armed States, Arms Control Association

• March 24 — Shaping the New Space Age, Atlantic Council

• March 24 — What are the Hidden Costs of the War with Iran? Center for Strategic & International Studies

• March 24 — International Cooperation for Resilient Subsea Cable Infrastructure, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• March 24-26 — Global Force Symposium & Exposition, Association of the U.S. Army

• March 25 — Putin’s Russia Today: What Comes Next? Michael V. Hayden Center

• March 25 — Next Steps for U.S.-Japan Military Shipbuilding, Repair and Maintenance, Stimson Center

• March 30 — China’s Economic Slowdown: Risks, Realities and Strategic Implications, Hudson Institute